http://anglican.ink/article/bp-guernsey-response-truro-church
one of a series of articles published on the controversy caused by agreements between the ACNA Truro parish and the TEC diocese of Virginia, in direct contradiction of the advice the Truro rector and leadership received from the ACNA diocesan bishop (+John Guernsey) and provincial archbishop (++Foley Beach). Additional articles on that site that bear on this piece:
http://anglican.ink/article/truro-parish-form-school-peace-and-reconciliation
http://anglican.ink/article/statement-truro-archbishop-foley-beach
http://anglican.ink/article/truro-parish-signs-agreement-episcopal-diocese-virginia
And from the TEC perspective:
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/acna-archbishop-on-counterfeit-reconciliation-of-truro-acna-diocese-of-virginia/
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/truro-institute-partnership-of-truro-acna-and-the-episcopal-diocese-of-virginia-announced/
So, now that you have all the background, in my humble opinion...
Bishop Guernsey and Archbishop Beach are following the course set out in Matthew 18:15-18.
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Reconstructing events from the various letters, we can surmise that Bishop Guernsey counselled Tory Baucum and the Truro leadership against joint ventures with TEC. When they did not listen, he consulted with ++Foley Beach, who joined him in recommending to Truro that they not go forward. Now that the Truro leadership has decided to openly defy the Godly advice of their diocesan and the archbishop, things have moved to "tell it to the Church," which we see in the letters from +Guernsey and ++Beach. I am not sufficiently conversant in the canons to know what forms of discipline are available to the bishop if the parish leadership maintains its current course, but I assume that a cleric who maintains his residency in the CoE requires a license from the bishop in order to function in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic, and if worse comes to worse, such license could be withdrawn. The vestry could be given the choice between submitting to the authority +Guernsey, or, alternately, returning to the authority of the TEC bishop (ie- rejoining TEC). As things are currently, the Truro leadership appear to want to be recognized as ACNA (which keeps their more conservative members happy), but are submitting, substantially, to the TEC bishop. Given that their rent paid to the TEC bishop (15% of which goes directly to 815 under the new TEC "tax canon") may well be greater than their contribution to their own diocese, the financial situation makes their allegiance clear. I am not part of the congregation, so I have no idea of defiance of the bishop's authority is widespread, or is a matter of the old fashioned TEC strategy of loading the vestry of a parish (by the rector or bishop or a faction within the congregation) in order to support a particular outcome. But it is difficult to see how a congregation that voted overwhelmingly to leave TEC is now on this bandwagon where communion of the unbaptised, ordination of people who do not believe in the Resurrection, unitarianism, gay marriage, massive ongoing lawsuits and 700 depositions of clergy are somehow second order issues over which we can have "good disagreement."
Worst case scenario for Tory Baucum? He ends up with a choice between being the "conservative" suffragan bishop of the TEC diocese of Virginia, or "suffragan bishop for good disagreement" under Canterbury. Worst case scenario for the congregation- they go back to TEC at the risk of eternity, but it will save them a pile of money, assuming they get the control of their property back. Worst case scenario for ACNA- they lose part, maybe most of the congregation, and will need to find new worship space for the Anglicans who remain loyal to the Church, rather than the building. Worst case for the TEC bishop- he loses all the rental income, and has to put up with Tory Baucum telling him how to run his diocese until the day one of them retires. Worst case for the ABoC- he keeps going down the road he is on, where NO issue is of the first order and (sarcasm on) he ends his tenure defending the satanic rites practiced by one of his cathedral deans from critics on the basis that the dean's interpretation of verses on Baal represents a valid, but different, interpretation than the majority of the Church (sarcasm off).
I have some commentary on the interference in ACNA (and by proxy, Gafcon) affairs by Canterbury, but this has gotten longish already, so that will be a separate post.
